GARAGE sale madness and catching back up!

Where to begin.  So yes it has been a while (okay six days… waaayyyy overdue) but better late than never.

 

SO – I need to start off with the weekend.  THE GARAGE SALE.  So – in my post on pre-genetically defined bargain hunting – its in your blood (read here for background info); basically I proposed the theory that bargain hunting is a genetic mutation; it is passed down in your blood and is something you have no control over – like red hair or freckles.  My Dad is the biggest bargain hunter I know; his poison of choice is garage sales.  So when my Finnish grandparents decided they were having a garage sale to clear out almost their entire worldly possessions (they are moving to a unit in town; as opposed to the 40 acre farm they currently live on.  Wise move), as you could imagine Dad was the first  to jump up screaming that he would assist.  And then he roped me into it.

 

So there I was, 7:45am Saturday morning, just having travelled the 45min drive to my Mummu and Pappas house smack bang in the middle of nowhere, regional Victoria – all ready for the garage sale.  PUMPED I was.  Well not – but trying to be.  Was hard to muster up much enthusiasm when it was six degrees and I was yet to have a coffee.  Upon arrival – Dad is out doing some merchandising.  I brought along two awful tribal-inspired vases that I had planned to give to the op shop but though I would see if I could make a quick buck instead; and a three door Balinese inspired mini chest.  Now this mini chest is a bit of an in-joke;  like everything else I furnish my house from eBay finds, and  I spotted this chest of drawers a while back (Balinese phase has long past thank god).   Made the bf go and pick it up in his ute., as I did not assume they would fit in my micro Citroen.  Turns out he could have gone and picked them up on a skateboard; it only just comes up to your knee and the drawers are so tiny that nothing of any major importance could possibly fit in them.  Hence – mini chest.  Totally crap and pointless – but hopefully someone will hand over a tenner for it.

 

Dad was a little ‘embarrassed’ with the calibre of items for sale; being a seasoned garage-saler he was worried that any of the customers that were keen enough to actually make the trek out to this sale of the century were going to walk away in disgust.  TV remote with the power button chewed off by Rosie the galah? Here – 20 cents.   Full set of Finnish encyclopaedias from 1967? Got it - $10.  55 year old metal detector which actually does still work – interested… $350 (um I pulled this price tag off immediately – NOT GOING TO HAPPEN).  My Mummu had really put in the hard yards – every single item (from a container full of corks and bottle tops to every single knick knack and old Tupperware that covered the trestle tables) was priced.  INDIVIDUALLY priced – with a small white handwritten sticker.  Unbelievable.  She has even priced all items in the house (except for my Pappa – whose favourite joke with all customers then became ‘I am not for sale’ in a thick Finnish accent followed with raucous laughter), and invited people through to examine the wares. Amazing.

One hour on – the garage sale was in full swing.  The amount of customers who made the trip was simply amazing; farmers, families with dogs and kids in tow and even groups of teenagers and young couples – looking for a retro bargain or two.  Three cups of black International roast later – my Dad and I had our selling pants on and things were flying out the door.  Dad had the brilliant idea of pilling all the rusted antique tools, nuts and bolts into icecream containers, all priced at $2 a container.  The farmer men were enthralled with the most random bits of rusted metal, and you couldn’t drag them away from half a bit of broken pipe or some secateurs so covered in rust they didn’t even open – these were absolute gold to them.  We began pulling everything out of the house that we could carry – and did some much needed re-merchandising, and sales took off.   Fishing nets (now illegal ones) were racing out, as well as ancient rugs, 80’s pastel swan prints and a rather stunning embroidered donkey tapestry that even Mummu thought was hideous.  We sold a dining table, a hand crafted chair swing and three rocking chairs.  Two radios and one clock that didn’t work, a rusted out bike for the bargain price of $1 and a boxload of quinces (kindly donated by a lady by Mummu goes to line-dancing with – wht do you even do with these?).  But perhaps the sale of the day was the dilapidated vintage caravan.  It was parked in the trees, had two flat tyres and the painted cladding was peeling and falling off in places – but some lucky customer walked away with it for the absolute bargain price of $20.  How they were coming to pick it up – I have no idea.

 

Overall – it was a raging success.  We made just under $400 – until dad found a two bucker in his pocket which meant we cleared the four hundred mark.  FAB.

Here are some action shots of the fun filled day:

the CARAVAN!

the caravan interior - amazing

A record player I snapped up for the bf - he has been hunting for one for a while

Hahaha. GOLD.

Hmm.. what else?  The remainder of the weekend was uneventful – did some baking.  I am into sugar-free everything at the moment (like fashion, my diet is heavily influenced by any diet/lifestyle/health book or mag or even story watched on A Current Affair – last one was no dairy (if I see another soy yogurt I will SCREAM); so attempted to create a sugar-free cheesecake and thought I’d through in a berry and rhubarb slice whilst I was at it.  Well – I am not a baker; a point further proven by these two disastrous efforts.  The slice was so bland and uninspiring the word cardboard springs immediately to mind (I tried to pretend I liked it but the bf was sceptical – and rightly so.  BLEUGH), and then the cheesecake. OH the cheesecake.  I couldn’t get the creamcheese to blend in properly – so I (wrongly) figured that it would somehow melt in in the oven and become a wonderfully smooth consistency.  Alas – it did not.  The top remained lumpy, but at least was firm.   Lumps of cream cheese may end up being quite tasty I surmised – and so I put it in the fridge to cool.  After dinner, and with much anticipation I cut the first slice, and it went everywhere.  The middle was still runny, and the pasty was nowhere near cooked.  I mashed it up in a bowl with some cream and tried to pass it off as ‘cheesecake crumble and cream’ – but even the bf wouldn’t eat it.  God damn – in the bin for that guy too.  $60 and a full bin later – think I am ready to give up any masterchef fantasies.

Monday’s outfit was crap – no images are required.  I had a sore toe and wore horrid flat shoes that in no way matched the outfit; the whole experience put a dampener on the day and I could not bring myself to post.

Tuesday’s outfit was awesome.  Yesterday was a Melbourne day – so that means I can go a little bit more ‘fashiony’ than usual; plus I was meeting a gf for dinner so needed to impress.  This was it:

Outfit included a new addition to the wardrobe room – orange linen high-waisted Gorman pants ($25 eBay – fab colour and loving the high waisted fit), with the Sussan navy and cream striped shirt tucked in ($30 on sale Sussan), and then the CR colour block espadrilles as footwear (the peach heel matched totally with the pants and it was going to be a gorgeous 22 degrees in Melb town – hence the toes out).  I had added a cream Zara boyfriend blazer for the morning chill – this added a total seventies vibe to the outfit – not sure if I liked this or not.

Dinner plans fell through – which actually suited me fine as it meant I squeezed in a spot of South Wharf DFO shopping (and I got to watch the entire Biggest Loser finale – the girls looked amazing!).  In 1.5 hours I visited three shops – and with change from $200 I came out with the below:

Country Road – 1x pair of rust coloured rayon drape front pants ($40); and 1x pair of tan clog heeled boots ($30 – I know these are not cool anymore but they were THIRTY BUCKS – I just couldn’t pass them up.  They will still be cool in Ballarat so all good) and a sleeveless silk black and latte panelled shirt ($60 – just because I needed another sleeveless silk shirt).
Witchery – 1x pair black glitter brogues ($47.50 – super cute, and so reasonable)

The other shop visited was Bed Bath and Table where I bought some matching Morgan and Finch eurpoean pillowshams – OH how exciting. No pics of these babies.

Todays outfit:

This includes the CR pants bought yesterday, with a Sportsgirl tomato red sleeveless shirt tucked in and a black Tibi jacket thrown over the top.  I did have the sparkly new brogues paired with this – but when I put it all together I felt like Ellen Degeneres and not in a good way.  Quickly changed these for some Sempre Di black leather sandals and the overall effect was much more visually pleasing.

Delivery today:

One is a secret (could it be competition related??!) and the other is Possible Wedding Dress option number three.  Will need to secretly try when I get home – hopefully this one will be a winner!

Here it is again:

Then all I need is to get engaged.  One step at a time… at least ill have the dress sorted first.

OH – the Latopic blazer has arrived at Mother dearests.  I am allowed an early birthday present this weekend – it’s a toss up between an oversized camel Gorman coat or the amazing sequin Latopic Ricki-Lee blazer.  Decisions decisions, may try to make mum give up both.  There is still a Rachel Gilbert leather jacket to come….

FFIFY xxx

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